Brian Lester is an Australian, fourth-generation shoe maker who has worked in different facets of the footwear trade for over 50 years.
Lester operates the independent, 'Australian Made' certified business, Lester Shoes, in Melbourne.
He hand makes men's dress shoes from leather in a small factory and can customise each pair to cater for an individual's foot requirements.
Despite his passion for shoe-making, Lester is well aware of the costs of manufacturing products in Australia and said that that is one of the difficulties of running a hand-made, Australian, footwear business.
"It is very expensive to manufacture shoes in Australia [because it's] very expensive to import materials.
"It's a different world now from when I used to manufacture shoes - it's mostly imported shoes now.
"I was doing a count-down the other day of how many shoe factories there used to be. There were about 138 shoe factories, but it started moving offshore in the late 70s. [Now there's] probably three or four.
"[We're] a made-to-order business. We make shoes for individuals and can accommodate for bunions, corns and can make allowances for orthotics - you can't get that from imported footwear.
"[There's a] limited market for what we do, we're certainly not mainstream. Most people buy with their pocket - that's understandable, everyone's got their budgets.
However, Lester said that the biggest challenge for him is getting the word out to the public about the business.
"My biggest challenge is to get the word out there. The more I do that, the more customers I can attract. That's something I'm working on, so we'll see how that goes.
"[I have to] get my head around driving the website, social media that sort of thing. It's a different world than what I'm used to.
"We used to sell direct to shops [but now we] have to deal direct with the public. [We] trade off the website - people find us there; we arrange a fitting and go from there.
"Shoe making itself has so many challenges - its brick wall after brick wall - a lot of people would love to make their own shoes but they find it too hard."
Nevertheless, Lester said that the footwear trade keeps him busy and there is a small resurgence to buy hand-made, Australian made shoes.
"Some people like [customised] products - I don't think it's the mainstream - we're just catering for a smaller market.
"Generally once we satisfy a customer with their first pair of shoes they come back for more. We use the best leathers we can source [and] a lot of our customers comment on the fantastic wear they get on [the shoes].
"It's a one man business, and it keeps me busy. [I work] pair by pair [on] customer's requests."